every song is about you

shane cannot win. and these overarching racist structures will manifest in microaggressions and overt violence against him. the churning animal of the canadian youth hockey system is rife with abuses from coaches paying to get certain kids transferred to their teams for win records/betting, to racist and homophobic epithets being standard, to youth hockey players this month, april'26 getting brought up on charges of SA with a weapon against some of their teammates in a hazing ritual. it's difficult to convey how integrated hockey is with culture and community particularly in rural canada, and how many financial claws it has. but shane was more than probably billeted with a (white, rich) family during his upswing through juniors and he has to play with almost entirely white/privileged kids and no exceptional status is gonna change that, and him being gay will infinitely complicate that and put a bigger target on him. (+ shane growing up haafu/diaspora child, quebecois forced assimilation/linguistic racism, autistic and undiagnosed, overly invested mother figure, ocd coping tendencies, made captain of og-6 team so young, eating disorder, etc.)

ilya is not insulated from harm, no. the russian hockey system exists as an extension of the state via kremlin policy (state-sanctioned propagandized cultural/gender norms and literal regulations for youth sports and the importance of it for russia's image/economy). part of which we can infer, like in the military, includes generational hazing practices echoing dedovshchina. ilya's father, as a general/member of state, is literally feeding into this ideology with his in-text abuse: "apologize to russia/are you not ashamed?".

ilya could have come up through the system through a designated sport school/UOR, which puts scrutiny and additional pressure on him and creates an isolated boarding-school environment which are renown as canada's, for featuring coach abuse and hazing rituals. systemic bodily violations a la overwork, forced drugging, lack of ability to quit the sport, etc. is proven.

so ilya is in a three prong lock of: conformity to culture, lack of bodily/financial autonomy, and state surveillance.

and contextually i think it's important to note the visceral pressure for russian players to maintain conformity thru state control and play for russian teams, adhere and vocally support socio-political ideology, etc. is lifelong. players have had their visas complicated to prevent them from leaving russia to rejoin the NHL after summers (kiril k*prizov), have been coerced to signing contracts to play in russia before leaving for the NHL/had to secret themselves out of russia to play (evgeni m*lkin), have been abducted from outside a rink and taken to complete military service (ivan f*dotov), have been threatened w jail/death to shut the fuck up abt russia's genocide against ukraine (nikita zador*v), etc. every one of them that will speak, reports feeling terrified for their families back in russia if they step wrong. ilya is already in a place of threat being so publicly a russian athlete, let alone tossing being partly gay into it. (+ ilya growing up in domestic abuse/parental suicide home environment, depression, cptsd, hypersexuality, russian in america, made captain so young, immigrant status instability, etc.)

for both of them, being preceived as gay is a dangerous evolution of the threat of being seen as not a team player, not a regular guy, not a hard enough worker. hazing doesn't stop at juniors. this is why they are both terrified in text, during the timeline of s1.

neither shane nor ilya exist in safe spaces, even while hockey is their escape and their joy. that's what makes it complicated. it's never just a game.

so, asking if they would participate in hazing is sorta like asking if they care about hockey, imho. they want to play hockey. to play hockey, you have to be able to be in the locker room with the rest of the guys. and to be in the room, you have to assimilate and conform and endure. yes different rooms have different tones, but everyone young and serious is jockeying for a place in the majors, is indoctrinated into this for-profit abuse system that demands children's bodies and isolates and attacks them to prevent change. hockey hazing culture is rooted in violent misogyny and how men perform that to the judgement of other men. juniors guys referring to girls they sleep with as 'kills', nhl as the only league without a domestic violence policy, etc.

and that becomes wanting to stay in the majors at all costs, and hypermasculine misogynistic performance to white NA capitalist standard is the requirement. guys get real ugly about that and you have to pay your dues, prove you are part of the hockey machine, just a cog. no better than anyone else in the room, what happens in the room stays in the room, no matter the ice. and they don't view this as hazing the way we analyze it as hazing, really. they view it as just how it is. and everyone either makes it through and proves they're a man of the team or they wash out.

shane and ilya made it through. that's what it takes.

thanks for the frank questions. this post is not suuuper detailed, but i think this is important to talk about, obviously. i think we owe it to real kids/folks in these industries to discuss this stuff and keep it in our minds when we engage in fanworks abt HR. bc our support of a hockey tv show feeds into support of hockey as a sport. and that's complicated.

some supplemental texts for shane+ilya+hazing:

@rozzed 's adroit and cutting exploration of generational hazing re: david and shane: here, here

@transshanehollander 's essential, more eloquent, and thorough discussion of structural racism shane endures in childhood/the league and how RR frames it: here, here

Contrails by grudekoks (glanzkohl) which frankly explores the depth of possible cultural and sexual trauma for shane and ilya

i looked over it and i ached by IsvsWorld which explores shane's relationship w his own racial id/hockey system/microagressions

chapter 1 of cracked plexiglass by syntjjh which focuses on hockey being synonymous with white nationalism in canada

@yiiiiiiiikes25 's deft and detailed exploration of sexual assault, institutional misogyny and conformity to capitalist structures: here

@kiyaar recs starting reading on generational military hazing in russia as related to russian masculinity policing: here, here

important context for reality vs. fandom: current uptick in bos, MA youth hazing from players and coaches as a response to HR popularity that talks abt the pervasiveness in NA sport

two links aggregating further readings abt hockey+hazing+racism+gender: here, here. feel free to put in comments any works/fanworks you found particularly insightful!

footnotes